His visit is part of a 30-city book tour organized by Faith Words, Young’s Brentwood-based publisher.

Like “The Shack,” Young’s new book is a parable about grief and grace. It tells the story of Anthony Spencer, a hard-driving businessman who ends up in a coma after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

While in the coma, he meets God and, like Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol,” has the chance to turn his life around.

Young, who lives near Portland, Ore., originally self-published “The Shack” before it became a bestseller. Nashville was one of the first places the book took off, as a number of local churches bought it by the case back in 2008.

The author said “The Shack” gave people space to talk openly about their faith and about their fears and doubts without the pressure of having to give the right answers.

“It gave people permission to talk about God without it being a religious conversation,” he said.

His publisher hopes the new book will do the same.

“Paul is a great storyteller who creates incredibly imaginative stories,” said Rolf Zettersten, senior vice president and publisher for Hachette Nashville, which owns Faith Words. “He has this theme about God’s unending love that permeates both books.”

Geoff Little, who attends Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville, has read “Cross Roads” and “The Shack” and plans to attend Thursday’s signing.

Little said Young has a way of showing how God is at work even when people have made a mess of their lives.

“He doesn’t believe in a grace that fits around the edges of our human existence,” he said. “There is grace that is so much bigger than any of our mistakes.”

God in many forms

Young’s books have caused some controversy for their unconventional depictions of God. In “The Shack,” God appears as an elderly African-American woman, a Middle Eastern man and a young Asian woman.

In the new book, God also appears in surprising forms, as an elderly grandmother and a young man in jeans and flannel shirt.

Young said he’s not trying to redefine God. Instead, he’s trying to give people a glimpse of God’s personality and said that the Bible uses a number of images for God, including depicting God as a rock, as a mother hen and as a fortress.

He said the new book explores how fear — as well as the pursuit of wealth and power — can isolate people from the suffering around them.

“You have fear to the degree that you don’t know you are loved,” he said. “My general view is that every time I look at the throne of the universe, the same guy is still on it and he is not wringing his hands.”

So far, the new book is doing well.

It took “The Shack” 13 months to reach the New York Times bestseller list. “Cross Roads” hit the best­seller list in two weeks.

Young said he’s not worried about the success of the new book. With six kids, six grandkids and a wife of 33 years, he said he already has everything he needs.

“The things that mattered to me were in place before I wrote ‘The Shack,’ and those things are still the things that matter to me,” he said. “You have to live inside the grace of each day.”